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KotNR House Rules
Category:Knights of the New Republic This is the house rules page for the Star Wars: Knights of the New Republic campaign. (Under construction.) = House Rules = General Rules Books Used Everything is potentially fair game; however, material from the out-of-era books (such as Jedi Academy, Force Unleashed, Knights of the Old Republic and Clone Wars) as well as material from out-era found in other books must be approved by the Game Master on an individual, point-by-point basis. In this case, it is better to ask permission than to beg forgiveness; the GM does not like surprises. Books the GM does not have will simply not be considered. (Donation of books is always accepted.) Eratta The Official Eratta is taken by default to be in effect, supersceded only by officially officious house rules. (That is, this page.) Note specifically that this means Mechanic has been added to the Jedi class list. The full Eratta by book is as follows: *SAGA Core Rulebook *Starships of the Galaxy *Knights of the Old Republic *The Force Unleashed *Scum and Villainy *The Clone Wars Also, you should avail yourselves of the Offical FAQ Compilation Thread's wisdom. Anti-Munchkinism Creative applications of the rules are not nessessarily a bad thing. However, munchkinism will not be tolerated - attempts to dominate the game will not be tolerated. (Such as using a gaggle of Astromech Droids to spam Aid Another attempts.) Anti-Munchkin rulings, when handed down, are final; argument will not be tolerated. Gameplay Rules Modifications Skills Modifications Jump, Climb and Swim have been rolled into Atheletics. I don't see the need to make you pay more than once for "Go places and do things with your body." Droid Reprogramming Droid reprogramming is possible, possibly even for Heroic droids. However, in order to reprogram a Droid's Feats, Talents or Skills, the programmer must themselves possess the Feat, Talent, or Skill they wish to imbue upon a droid, or a suitable pre-programmed reprogramming chip (see Items). If Aid Another is to be used, all aides must themselves possess the Feat, Talent or Skill that wishes to be programmed in, as per the 'Aid Another can only be done for something you would be capable of doing on your own' clause. A droid Hero can bypass this limitation, effectively retraining themselves in a skill, feat or talent they did not have by forgetting one they did have, but they may receive no help which does not possess the Feat, Talent or Skill which they wish to program into themselves. Droid reprogramming attempts takes one hour per level of the droid. No means of Droid Reprogramming or modification may confer upon a droid a feat, talent, or skill which it does not meet the prerequisites to take. Stunting As an Exalted player, the concept of stunts pleases me; players doing over-the-top, heroic things as befitting Jedi will be rewarded by being made more likely to succeed, and further adding to characters' Force Points or even invoking a free Destiny Point. The way stunting works is simple; to promote role-playing and good, vivid descriptions, one simply must describe what one is doing. Detail will be taken into consideration, as will audacity. Essentially, the point is to be awesome, and in so doing, prove that you are truely moving with the will of the Force. Stunts have three tiers. The First Teir is the most basic and common, but should be pretty easy to trigger. The effect is simple; you may apply a Force Point immediately to whatever ends are available considering your current action (such as boosting a roll, or for many force powers, boosting the effect). This does not actually count as using a Force Point, so if it's really important, you can spend an actual Force Point, too. Invoking pretty much any TVTrope will get you at least a first-tier stunt. The Second Tier is the same as First Tier (rolling a bonus as if you had rolled a Force Point), but additionally adds a Force Point to your FP pool; which you can then spend on the roll, if it's that important to you. To invoke a second-tier stunt, some interaction with the scenery is mandatory. (Even in space there is scenery, if only your cockpit,) and your action must be both daring in nature and dramatic in scope. Force Points gained in this way are permanent, but vanish along with any others upon leveling up. Use 'em or lose 'em! The Third Tier is the hardest to reach, and they will be given out only rarely. In addition to the benefits of the First and Second Tier, successfully pulling off a Third-Tier Stunt grants you a temporary Destiny Point, which lasts until the end of the Scene. Third-Tier stunts must be truely couragous, unique, inventive. Anything that makes your fellow player's jaws drop is good - these stunts are often suicidal on their face; interaction with the scenery is mandatory, and it's the kind of thing that should make your fellow players go "holy smokes." Note: Third Tier stunts can go horribly, horribly awry if the action attempted is suicidal, but insufficiently awesome or unique; you may be left facing death with only a second-tier, first-tier, or even no stunt to back you up! Please take care when attempting something this audacious. Over-use may well leave the Force uninclined to provide for you. First-Tier Example In Episode 4, A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi not only uses a mind trick to convince the Stormtroopers that R2-D2 and C-3P0 are not the droids they are looking for, he reinforces how 'little' they mean to him and Luke by adding that "They're for sale, if you want them." His whole speech was audacious and daring, putting words into the mouth of the Stormtrooper. This was a one-die stunt (in a social context, which is perfectly valid), and given Obi-Wan's high level, there was simply no question; the Stormtroopers had no hope to resist him. Second-Tier Example In Episode 5, The Empire Strikes back, Luke Skywalker and Dak Raltar attacked an Imperial AT-AT in a T-47 Snowspeeder. In an absolutely audacious and dangerous move, they used the Snowspeeder's tow-cable to grapple the leg of the AT-AT in an attempt to bring it down. This was a Second-Tier Stunt, adding the effect of a Force Point to Luke's piloting rolls, Dak's gunnery rolls, and giving them both a Force Point. Unfortunately for Dak, even though he may or may not have attempted to use that Force Point to survive the direct hit from the AT-AT's main laser cannon that downed the snowspeeder, Luke was unable to get him free from the crashed fighter before another AT-AT stepped on it. Third-Tier Example In Episode 2, Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi are pursuing bounty hunter Zam Wessel in a purloined airspeeder. Anakin attempts to 'head Zam off at the pass' by taking a shortcut, but when he emerges from a tunnel, the bounty hunter's speeder is nowhere in sight. Then, young Skywalker simply says "excuse me, Master," and simply drops from the speeder, hurtling through the endless skies; his stated intent is to intersect Zam's speeder as she exits a tunnel far below, and grab on. The jaws of everyone involved drop; this is clearly a Third-Tier stunt, and with the application of a Destiny Point, Anakin simply succeeds through having taken refuge in unmitigated audacity. Force-Users and low-velocity projectiles There comes a time when gameplay must nessessarily come before canon, or sense. Specifically, the players don't want to wind up on the wrong side of an enemy grenade-spamming any more than I want what are supposed to be climactic encounters with enemy lightsaber-wielders or whatever resolved by the initiative roll in a hail of thermal detonators, fragmentation grenades and antipersonelle rockets. It's better for all of us. After all, if the enemy see it being super-effective (Jedi uses rocket launcher. It's super-effective!) against them, they're not stupid. They're going to start handing out grenade belts and rocket launchers to the mooks. Therefor, anything that constitutes a low-velocity projectile (including, but not limited to) grenades, rockets, and the like, can be redirected with a reflexive Use the Force skill check by anyone against whom the attack would be effective. The check is simply opposing the original attack roll with a UtF check. Falling five short or less of the attack roll harmlessly tosses the projectile away, and equaling or exceeding it allows the character using the UtF check to either disarm the grenade and keep it, or throw it back freely. (Rockets cannot be disarmed and stored for later, but they can be freely redirected.) Each use of the Force for a reflexive throw-back imposes a -5 penalty on subsequent uses of the Force until and during the next round - IE, if you throw back a grenade once, and then have to roll against another grenade, you will be at a -5 penalty on the second grenade, and a -10 penalty in using the Force on your next round. Redirected projectiles may be re-redirected, resulting in a potential game of Force Ping-Pong with a live bomb as the ball. Character Concept Rules This game is a Jedi-oriented game. Specifically, the player characters are either Jedi-in-training at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple on Yavin IV, or astromech droids owned by the Jedi Praxeum. This should not be construed to restrict the mechanical classes that players may take, but it does place some additional requirements on those humanoids whose first levels are not in Jedi. Every organic character must begin the game with, at minimum, the Force-Sensitive feat. If you wouldn't get it from your class (and if you're not a Jedi, you won't,) or race, you must take it with your first-level feat. This is non-negotiable. Player characters who do not have the Weapon Proficiency (Lightsabers) feat will not get a lightsaber. It's that simple. (On the other flipper, when and if you do get said feat, you will automatically recieve a lightsaber without having to pay the cost of it.) Characters who do not build a lightsaber will not get promoted to the in-character rank of Jedi Knight, no matter their level. (Fair warning.) Characters are strongly advised to be trained in piloting, or take the Force Pilot Sense-Tree Talent. This game will feature high-flying action as well as epic lightsaber duels. However, players should not attempt to purchase any starcraft or airspeeders at the beginning of the game. They will be destroyed by fiat with no compensation given, nor remorse felt. (Fairly warned ye be; Landspeeders and speeder bikes are safe.) Droid characters will be allowed - however, they must be Astromech droids of some stripe or another, or else tiny enough to fit in a starfighter's cockpit stowage compartment as someone's cargo. Droid characters are assumed to be owned by the Jedi Order unless they are specifically property of another player. As property of the Jedi Order, droid heros who accompany Jedi characters and groups may be given a variety of tasks, entrusted with sensitive data, carry mission-vital programming or equipment packages, or simply be pressed into service flying as a starfighter's astromech. As such, they are given a lot of leeway, and almost never subjected to memory wipes. Droid characters under the aegis of the Jedi Order may be illegally modified to bear and fire weapons, but they are expected to be extremely circumspect about the circumstances in which they do so. Jedi Expectations If you're playing a Jedi (which means anyone who's not playing a droid), you're going to be expected to behave like a Jedi. This is the NJO era, mind, so there's plenty of room for nontraditional Jedi and unorthodox soloutions here - Kyle Katarn, for example, is more likely to be found drinking a Corellian Ale in a seedy cantina next to the likes of Han Solo and Dash Rendar than he is to be found meditating atop the temple (though you can find him doing both.) Jaden Korr dresses in manners that would make most Twi'lek dancing girls envious, Raynar Thul is the son of very wealthy trading magnates, and so forth and so on. These are wild and wooly times, and there's room for wild and wooly Jedi. You can even flirt with the grey side a bit, it won't kill you (just don't overdo it.) But Jedi at the heart you must be; extremely out-of-line behavior will be dealt with in-character, and at the extreme may result in the complete loss of a character who has Fallen, turned traitor to the New Republic, or so forth. While there are no hard pronouncements on age, your characters are learners; with some experiance under their belts, but, as they say, "You are not a Jedi, yet." (Despite what your character sheet says. :) ) Characters should be fairly young unless you have a really good explaination otherwise - mid-teens to early twenties, as humans reckon time, is probably best, 15 or 16 being ideal with a normal idea. Droid Expectations Droids in the campaign are almost certainly going to be owned by the Jedi Temple. This means you may well wind up taking orders from PCs and NPCs - you're in good company, though. If a PC is told to hop to by Master Skywalker, they had better hop to, just as you had better. So don't feel too bad. Droids in the campaign will almost certainly be technical specialists first and foremost, but Jedi get sent into some Wookie-strength hairballs, and they may be required to drag a droid with skills they lack along. (Katarn will be the first to bemoan the number of times a skilled slicer in the form of R2-D2 would have saved him a whole heaping helping of headache.) Therefor, droids will be permitted to be armed with blasters, stunners, or what-have-you incorporated into their chassis, at the GM's permittance. (You're not getting anything ridiculously illegal like a Tenloss disruptor, for example.) However, droids are expected to be circumspect in the application of their weapons; basically, held to the same or higher standards as Jedi characters. If the nature of the events in question is obviously hostile (Storming a facility owned by terrorists, fending off an attack on the Academy,) then by all means, you are more than welcome to fire at will. However, in more... Delicate situations (such as being in any form of public), restraint is preferred - stun settings only unless given the go-ahead to shoot by a Jedi, waiting for a Jedi to tell you to engage if any Jedi are nearby, and the like. Droids who violate these restrictions will be subjected to the same investigation as Jedi who slice and dice in the streets. You may be found to have acted appropriately if the situation was dire enough, but too many incidents may result in in-character action being taken; the removal of lethal weapons from your character, the fixing of a restraining bolt, or even (as a last resort) a memory wipe, effectively removing the droid character from the game. Unsuitable Races Several races are simply unsuitable for play in such a game. Races not on this list may regretfully be deemed unsuitable, but if it appears on this list, it is definitively unsuitable and will not be approved under any circumstances. * Anzati * Hutt * Gammorean * Any form of shapeshifter, including but not limited to ** Shi'do ** Clawdite Character Generation Rules Star Wars is a larger-than-life setting. I have never agreed with the philosophy that player characters must be ineffective mechanically in order to be good from a role-playing sense. On the other hand, ruthless, nonsensical min/maxxing makes Baby Skywalker cry. To that end, the following changes to character generation have been made: Class The Jedi class is not an out and out requirement for all three of your starting levels - some characters may have had adventures in other classes before coming to the Jedi Praxeum. It's even plausable that some characters have no levels in the Jedi class, though this should be very rare indeed. However, all characters are required to be Force-Users of the Jedi traditions - and only the Jedi traditions. After all, this is a Jedi game. All organic players are actively pursuing lives as Jedi - and if your character is in any way, shape, or form "not a Jedi, but a something in Jedi's clothing," then you need to re-think the character and come up with a new one. If you cannot abide by this rule, please excuse yourself - I don't want to see another Boba Fett clone masquerading as a Jedi. Level Starting player character level is 3. Hit Points Post-1st Level No rolling is nessessary. Just take the maximum hit points for your hit die. Build Points Character generation takes place on a 40-point-buy scale, using the normal prices. (Droids receive 34 points.) Bearing in mind that standard point buy is 25, 20 for droids, I dare say this is more than generous. Attributes Your ability stats (before reckoning racial adjustments or droid upgrades) are, however, limited in some ways. No more than one attribute may be a score of 17 or 18, OR two attributes may be scores of 15 or 16. The rest must be 14 or less. This is not an attempt to punish, mind; this is an attempt to see more well-rounded characters. For example, these arrays (before adjustments) are valid, though I won't hazard to guess what other stat assignments players will come up with: Wealth and Equipment I detest at an instinctive level any form of randomness in character generation. You start with (Level*(Level-1))*1,000 credits to spend on equipment. (Twice this for those with the Noble class's Wealth talent.) You start with the same amount of money in non-equipment - which may be spent on things like property (Jedi often find uses for safehouses) and favors (A one-time favor costs 2,000 credits * the CL of the character who owes it to you.) For a third-level character, this means that you start out with 6,000 Cr worth of gear, and 6,000 credits worth of intangibles/illiquids. Any equipment that would be outright illegal in the Republic is out-of-bounds. Tenloss disruptors, Thermal Detonators and the like, are illegal. (And don't bother mentioning that Katarn sometimes keeps them. As someone the Republic and the Jedi Order often call upon him to do Special Forces work, Kyle Katarn is an exception. If you get to be as relied-upon as Katarn, you can start breaking rules, too.) On the other limb, these are wild and wooly times. The Jedi Praxeum, being run by the brother of Chief of State Organa-Solo, and often called upon to defuse or otherwise deal with situations that would otherwise require the likes of Cracken's Commandos or Wraith Squadron (or Rogue Squadron), are given free reign to possess and use anything up to Military availability. As such, Jedi (and droids being operated by the Academy) are considered Licensed blanket for any Restricted and Military gear. However, the Academy is aware of it's status as not being an actual military force, so if you're not trained in it's use, Skywalker won't let you off Yavin IV with it, no matter whether you happen to have any or not. And in all cases, you are expected to excercize these broad privledges of carrying discretely. Law officers won't question what you're carrying on Republic worlds, but if you go throwing grenades or firing rocket launchers in public (or displaying them in public), you might get a lot of bad press the Jedi Academy does not need or want. Other than those restrictions, the only restriction of player characters is that you should not purchase any form of airspeeder or starcraft. It will be destroyed by fiat in the opening scenes of the game, and there will be neither recompensation or remorse given. Possession and free reign are not the same things. While this isn't exactly Exalted, where showing your Oricalcum armor or sword will get a Wyld Hunt called down upon you, this is a setting with rules and laws. You are required to excercize discrection in equipment choices. Neither the Jedi Order nor the Republic wants the Jedi to be seen as black-ops hit teams. If you're going to a civilized location, you must take extreme care in what you carry along and use. If you're going to Naboo, for example, lightsabers and robes (not even Katarn Robes) are it. If you're going somewhere a little more wooly, like Tatooine, you can take some heavier kit - Katarn Robes are advisable, and it might be a good idea to bring at least one belt of stun grenades - but you shouldn't go around looking like you're a squad of bounty hunters out to start shooting the town up. On the other hand, if you wind up in the direly bad situation of staging an armed assault on a location which is full of bad guys with nothing resembling civility or civilians around, the rules are anything goes. If you want clarification, ask. Either ICly (asking Master Katarn or a similarly knowledgeable Jedi) or OOCly, by just directly asking the GM. There '''will' be consequences for these kinds of things'', ranging from unwanted attention being called upon you, to censure by the Jedi Council. Extremely gross violations (powered armor in a civilized location) will tend to be much, much worse. Feats Everyone gets Weapon Proficiency with pistols. If you would have gotten proficiency with blaster pistols anyway, you get proficiency with rifles, and if you would've gotten both, then you get Weapon Proficiency (Advanced Melee Weapons) as a freebie as well. Specifically, this means that Jedi add Weapon Proficiency with pistols to their list of starting feats, Nobles and Scoundrels add proficiency with rifles, and Scouts and Soldiers add Proficiency (Advanced Melee Weapons). These feats are considered to be on the class in question's starting feats list for purposes of choosing your multiclassing feat. In line with the increase of offensive proficiency, everyone also receives an increase in their defensive ability. Those classes which do not start with any armor proficiencies (everything except Soldier) automatically get Light Armor Proficiency, and Soldiers automatically get Heavy Armor Proficiency. This holds true for droids as well; note page 193 of the Saga edition core rulebook. A Soldier's Heavy Armor Proficiency is held to be on it's starting class feats list for purposes of choosing your multiclass feat. Important note: To encourage players to be as willing to fly as they are to fight on the ground, when a character takes the Force Training feat, they get the Starship Tactics feat for free (and vice versa; taking Starship Tactics would give you Force Training.) Talents Every other time you gain a talent, you may choose an additional, piloting-related talent, for free. This rule is intended for characters who primarily focus upon their Jedi skills, so that they will still remain active and competitive in the sky. If more than half the talents you possess at any given time are related to piloting, on the other hand, your freebie talents become Jedi-relevant Talents. This is to prevent excessively bonus specialization in flying, and to ensure that players remain capable both on the ground and in the air. Powers and Manouvers All Force-Sensitive characters gain a freebie Force Power. Not a free application of the Force Training feat, but a lone, freebie power. Droids: You're out of luck. :) All characters trained in Piloting skill (or in possession of the Force Pilot Talent) gain a free Manouver (see Starships of the Galaxy.) Droids get two instead, to make up for their lack of Force Powers. Talents All Force-Sensitive characters may take a free talent from one of the Force-Sensitive general Talent trees at first level. This talent must come from the Force-Sensitive Talent Trees found in the Force chapter of the SWSE rulebook, and may not come from any class-level talent trees. Droids may take a free talent from the class tree of the heroic class they belong to at first level. Everyone with one level in the Jedi class gets Block and Deflect as free Talents. Frankly, they're core Jedi skills that we've seen even younglings use on-screen, and hopefully it will encourage the players to use their lightsabers. Background Despite the stress placed on mechanical freedoms and restrictions, this is a role-playing game, and character is vitally important. Characters who provide a good, solid, compelling background, are well-fleshed out and much more than simple numbers on pages, will get bonus perks at the GM's discretion. This could be anything, and will be of mechanical significance.